A Bolt from the Blue

AUTHOR’S NOTE

More than 400 years before the brothers Wilbur and Orville made history at Kitty Hawk, a man named Leonardo da Vinci was busy documenting the anatomy of birds and the vagaries of the wind. His ultimate goal: to build a craft that would allow a man to fly like his feathered brethren. This was no passing fancy on the part of Leonardo. Over a period of years, he dissected, observed, and sketched every movement of a bird’s flight so that he might understand what allowed them to gain the clouds, while Man was relegated to the earth. His writings culminated in the detailed Treatise on the Flight of Birds compiled sometime around 1505.

As for his drawings, they progressed over the years from scholarly studies of birds and their wings to fledgling designs that resemble today’s parachute and helicopter. He went on to sketch numerous detailed variations on winged crafts that incorporated the principles he had documented in his writings. Some, like a pair of immense wings strapped to a man’s back, were admittedly fanciful; others were amazingly reminiscent of modern gliders. History does not record Leonardo ever making a successful flight in one of these contraptions. . but then, I suspect that history did not record quite a bit of the Master’s more outrageous doings.

Further notes. For those who have been following the action with a historical atlas in hand, you’ve likely noticed that the tiny province of Pontalba is not to be found within the Duchy of Milan. . or anywhere else, for that matter. Both it and the unpleasant Nicodemo, Duke of Pontalba, are my own creations. As for the spunky Marianna, she is one of several fictional relatives that, purely for story purposes, I’ve given Il Moro in the course of this and past books.

Finally, the quote in the epilogue attributed to Delfina della Fazia is actually a well-known citation that has long been credited to Leonardo da Vinci. . though likely it was never written or said by him at all. But while no Leonardo expert has discovered those words among the Master’s volumes of work, neither has anyone yet identified the actual writer of this lofty sentiment. And so, with greatest apologies to that unknown author, I’ve taken the liberty of putting those words into Delfina’s mouth. For I have no doubt that, following her dramatic flight around Castle Pontalba, she must have recorded a similarly memorable affirmation in her own notebook!